Whats your view on bible prophesy?

My views on Bible prophecy are non-judgemental to me, but if they conflict with the views of other Christians may appear a little at odds to them. 🙂

It's a large subject which could be dealt with in depth. Avoiding that and cutting right to the quick, IMHO Bible prophecy was occasionally something pertaining to that time (i.e. the century after Christ, say), and in other instances while I agree that it was long-term and pertaining to today, I simply don't think we should look for literal and physical-world answers. That's clearly a minefield since there are so many differing interpretations. So clearly everybody or almost everybody is getting it wrong anyway.

I am much more accepting of esoteric, non-literal, interpretations. To give just two examples:

1. The "return of Christ / Messiah in the Second Coming" does not mean Jesus, but the essence or Christ Principle of which he was one example. It means the raising and appearance of Christedness within the many - within thousands, and then eventually millions of people. Otherwise what's the point?

2. The people who were then Jews reincarnated. The Twelve Tribes reincarnated in different parts of the world. So there's no sense in following the physical race, thinking about Israel being attacked, nuclear war, etc., etc., etc. You'll find the people who were then the tribes of Israel, IMHO reincarnated today in America, Britain, and other European countries.

V

Hello Aromajo,

I agree with what Venetian has written above. I certainly believe in Biblical prophecy - after all Jesus' life was the fulfillment of prophecy. But the thing is, as with all Biblical interpretation, different people can interpret prophecies in different ways. The way I read Revelation for instance is very different from the way that someone else who has a more material, literal view will understand it.

Christians have been waiting for Jesus the man to return for two thousand years - waiting for him to come in the flesh. But what if instead of the man Jesus returning, it is actually the Comforter that he promised would come? (See John 14-16_[COLOR="Purple"]

I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.....
These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14)

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. (John 15)

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16)

To give you an illustration. Sometime around 1800, there were huge discussions going on within ecclesiastical circles about the dates of the Daniel prophecies involving the second coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. It was (then) agreed that the Daniel dates pointed to the middle of the 19th Century. For instance, in 'A dissertation concerning the chronological numbers recorded in the prophecies of Daniel, as compared with those in the revelation of St. John' by Philip Allwood – 1833, he 4 times mentions 1866, as in this passage:
... they will come to a close in the year of our Lord 1866 ; when, as was before observed, the 1260 years of apostasy, and persecution will have terminated and the sanctuary will have been cleansed.

In the British Museum is a Christian magazine with (sorry, can’t find my photo copy for the exact words) something like:

(Not exact quote)”according to 200 of the most eminent Bible theologians, the second coming of Christ will be between the years 1866 and 1875” but he also went on to say that this would be against a background of national convulsions, something to do with Louis, wars, apostasy, with thousands killed – in other words, Armageddon.

So to the vast majority of people, nothing happened and actually, the Rev above kept revising his dates for Armageddon and the second coming, before he gave up, obviously convinced that nothing had happened and the Daniel dates were wrong.

But think about Jesus’ birth. The Jews were waiting for the promised Messiah who was going to come in great glory, rid them of the Romans and give them their nation back. They expected a king. What did they get? A humble baby in a stable (some say a cave) Not many people noticed Jesus’ birth – it wasn’t what they were waiting for.

To a student of Christian Science those dates 1866 and 1875 are highly significant – Mary Baker Eddy discovered the divine laws behind the works of the prophets and Jesus in 1866 and in 1875 her textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was first published - a teaching that has brought physical healing, redemption, supply, protection all through its spiritual sense of the Scriptures.

Could it be that Jesus did not mean his actual physical return as a man, but that the second coming of the Christ-idea (the power of the presence of God and the presence of the power of God) is the Comforter, which “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance” and that it would come in another, much quieter way – perhaps as a book?

Here are links to some interesting chapters in Mary Baker Eddy’s autobiography:

[url]Voices Not our Own[/url]

[url]The Great Discovery[/url]

Obviously other things happened in those years, but I post all this to show you that what has meaning to one person, perhaps has a different (or no) meaning to another. There is no such thing as “Only my interpretation of these words is the right one.” People have gone up mountains waiting for the end of the world for countless years and nothing happened.

What is far more important than getting worked up about some supposed coming physical Armageddon is that each of us is drawing closer to God, through obeying the two great Commandments, that each of us is following Jesus in ALL his ways, not just his words, but his works also.

Love and peace,

Judy

After reading these posts I started to remember a theory that I was starting to get interested in.
It started with a book written by an astronomer. He was tasked with plotting various planets magnetic fields. He had a computer model made to display these planetary orbits so that their fields could be calculated.
He found that about 2000 years ago there was a unique planetary condition that he believed would concentrate their magnetic effects at a location on Earth.
He believed that this strange conjunction was linked to the birth of Christ.
He went further and supposed that this concentrated magnetic field actually "programmed " a child that was being born, allowing it to have "super spirituality".
The point was that if this is true, then these planetary conjunctions are a regular occurrence IE every 2000 years. This ties in with the ages of the Zodiac, and A/ means that a super spiritual person could in fact be now due. and B/. This theory would make sense as a Divine plan for adjusting our progress from time to time by the creator.